More Architects Needed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31339, 8 April 1967, Page 14

More Architects Needed

New Zealand needs more architects and a better appreciation of

the modern role of architects, according to first-glance obser-

tions of Mr Malcolm Mac Ewen, editor of the journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Mr Mac Ewen is in Christchurch before attending the conference of the New Zealand Institute of Architects in Queenstown. “Your School of Architecture turns out about 20 students a year. Half of them go overseas, so you have a replacement or gain of only 10 or 11,” said Mr Mac Ewan. “The school in the state of Victoria in Australia alone has 1000 students in training.”

Mr Mac Ewan said that this situation probably arose from where there was a first need to provide roads, bridges, and towns. Today it was building new airports, universities, and other public facilities. All these were basic services. New Zealand being a young country in which there had been room to spread and “And low-density development has been possible: that is the important point,” Mid Mr McEwen. Here and elsewhere it was now necessary to make much better use of available space, to provide facilities where they were needed, and to make them as pleasant as possible for modern living. Scattered and spreading development was uneconomic. “You require more roads, more sewerage, more power and water reticulation in terms of nlaln mileage,” Mid Mr Mac Ewen. “You also need more cars, more buses, and so on. A three-ear family may not be so mueb a sign of an affluent family as of in-

efficient town-planning and public transport.” Architects filled an essential role by aiding efficient planning. It was much more complicated than putting up any one building; it was a complex design problem to fit in to the whole. Mr Mac Ewen said it was not

good to cut up a subdivision into equal sections. Some would want large sections, some small; some would want

family homes, and some would be living alone; some would want vegetable gardens, others would buy frozen foods.

"Until the public understands the specialist knowledge of the architect understands that he must collaborate with many others on the needs of the dient and of the area, and understands that the quality of public buildings and planning will be only as good as he demands from his public authorities, the full potential will not be realised,” said Mr Mac Ewen. The key was to employ architects in the right way.